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Smith, KenMuch Better (1990)

Made by Ken Smith from Prelinger Archives footage.


This movie is part of the collection: Prelinger Archives

Director: Smith, Ken
Producer: Smith, Ken

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: Robin_1990 - - April 14, 2008
Subject: Awesome
I've got no idea what this is, But I like it! Although it's a bit annoying seeing the footage out of context.

Reviewer: Rezgeco - - November 8, 2007
Subject: Nostagia redux
Quirky + Crazy Baby

Reviewer: Karma Hawk - - March 23, 2005
Subject: Great
This is a great montage of films, good music too.

Reviewer: MediaWhore - - November 30, 2004
Subject: Anne is grooming her pig
Excellent quirky video montgage that shows off some of the more humorous material available on thie site. Aside from being a good laugh this video offers great insight into 1950's American culture. This film is for me what the Perlinger Archives are all about!

Reviewer: AliceTeeple - - February 23, 2004
Subject: fun romp through prelinger land
Cute montage of images and sound bytes from the plethora of films in this collection.

Reviewer: Rick Prelinger - - January 12, 2004
Subject: Ken made this in 1990...
or so when we were working for the Comedy Channel in NYC. The network licensed a bunch of films from me to slice and dice, as well as a number of complete shorts that were "repurposed" by Best Brains for MST3K. Some films also came from other archives, like F.I.L.M. Archives (then called Streamline Films), which was the source for the excellent "Mr. B Natural."

Reviewer: cashel - - January 8, 2004
Subject: technical details
How to make a similar film...First assemble your movie clips and then import them in to win xp movie maker, Then arrange the clips in the time line and add an audio track if desired, and click ,save movie...It is a very time consuming task. I made a similar 4 minute movie by collecting short animations from the sissgraph 2003 review

Reviewer: Voynich - - December 20, 2003
Subject: A goofy romp
An excellent use of archival footage! Disconnected images and phrases are held together well with the rhythm of an introduced score. A fine introduction to what the Prelinger Archives have in store for everyone through a few of the quirkier scenes contained therein.

Ken Smith is also the author of another excellent introduction to much of the Archives, Mental Hygiene: Classroom Films 1945-1970, which catalogues and reviews hundreds of the instructional movies Mr. Prelinger has gathered.

I too hope more of the Archives' holdings can be brought online, but think what's already been made available is staggering in itself and a boon to humankind.

Reviewer: Cherokee Jack - - December 17, 2003
Subject: Spot the clip
Spuzz, the woman in the riddler costume is from the short "Mr. B Natural" done in 1957. It was produced by Conn Musical Instruments and is about an androgynous Peter Pan wanna-be who helps out Buzz, a social misfit who finds that the key to happiness and social acceptance is playing music--in this case a trumpet made by Conn Instruments. Very campy and well worth watching if it ever shows up in the Prelinger Archive.

Reviewer: Spuzz - - December 5, 2003
Subject: Spot The Clip
I am NOT sure who made this (Rick?) but it's an amusing compilation of clips of euphemeral films set to a great synthesiser score. There are some clips that are really recognizable from here and some which I KNOW are not. Can anyone tell me which film the girl with the riddler costume is from? That looks silly.